Alameda County Biographies
H. L. WOOD
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
H. L. Wood is president of the East Bay Home Builders, Incorporated, and as such is
contributing much to the substantial development and improvement of Oakland. He was born in
Evansville, Indiana, January 25, 1877, and is a son of H. B. and C. M. Wood. In the acquirement
of his education he passed through consecutive grades in the public schools until graduated from
the high school of his native city with the class of 1896. He then went to Chicago, where he
entered the wholesale dry-goods house of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company, whom he represented as
a salesman for three years. He then returned to Evansville, where he opened a retail grocery
store, which he conducted until 1904. He then sold out and came to Oakland, where he purchased
the business of the Sunset Cream & Butter Company in San Francisco. He remained there in active
business until 1906, when he lost everything that he had in the fire.
Following that disaster Mr. Wood went to Vera Cruz, Mexico, where he purchased a ranch
and thereon conducted a general merchandise store. At length oil was discovered upon his land
and the sale thereof made him immensely wealthy, but when the revolution of 1910 broke out he
had to leave that country. He was shot eight times while trying to get away from Mexico.
Disposing of his oil interests to the Southern Pacific Railroad, he returned to Oakland, where he
has since been engaged in the building business, and he has erected thirty homes which he has
sold on the installment plan. On the 6th of December, 1913, he organized the East Bay Home
Builders, Incorporated, of which company he is the president. One hundred business men of Oakland
are interested in this company, which has been established upon a most substantial basis. Among
them are some who represent every commodity in the building business, so that the company is in
a position to build better homes for less money than any company or firm that ever entered the
same line. Moreover, the men in control are thoroughly familiar with every phase of the business,
and they have eliminated all promotion schemes or plans. The business has already been firmly
established and is growing day by day. The officers of the company, which is capitalized for five
hundred thousand dollars, are: H. L. Wood, president; A. G. Rhodes, first vice president; C. U.
Henderson, second vice president; A. Alder, secretary; W. P. Stone, treasurer, and Benjamin R.
Aiken, attorney. On the board of directors are: H. P. Briggs, Thomas J. Thompson, A. G. Rhodes,
W. P. Stone, A. Alder, H. L. Wood and. C. U. Henderson.
In St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Wood was married to Miss Bertha Bridgeman on the 9th of May,
1903, and they have gained many friends during the period of their residence here. Mr. Wood
belongs to the Oakland Commercial Club, and he gives his political allegiance to the republican
party. In his connection with the former he co-operates in all movements that tend to the
upbuilding and substantial improvement of his city and manifests at all times a public-spirited
devotion to the general good.
Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 206